Poprocks and Coke: If I Can't Have Both, Which Do I Choose?

Another banner by Controlled Poison! Fabulous work of art.
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A week had slowly gone by but each day Billie's injuries got slightly better. Days have been redundant, especially when you barely get out unless it's to get a bite to eat.

As for Billie and Tre; Billie was still in the hospital recovering slowly. Since the injuries he had gotten was directly to his head, doctors were un-sure whether it would have been okay to release him or not. Although, the guys and yourself thought it would be okay to let him go, you understood that the doctors were trained into knowing these things.

Tre, on the other hand, was doing much better. Since his injuries included only a few cuts and sprains, he got out early. However, it took surgery for the doctors to remove the bullet in his arm but that easily got bandaged up. He spent three days in a hospital bed before he got released. He'll visit as long as Mike comes along; you couldn't blame how he wouldn't feel comfortable visiting by himself.

As for you; well, physically and mentally you felt a lot better, but emotionally... well... that was a different story. You loved Billie but your heart felt something for Tre regardless of what you might have thought during the period when you decided to break it off before there was really anything to hold on to.

It was the final day of Billie's hospitalization and he was having his final check-up with his doctor, Dr. Sean, who had been keeping an eye on Billie's case ever since day one.

Billie groaned, "Now?"

You shook your head, smiling weakly at him and his childish behavior.

A few seconds had passed before Billie looked back up at you and asked, "How about now?"

You let yourself giggle, "Billie, you'll be able to go back to your own bed tonight. Just chill for a few more hours."

He smirked, "Are you gonna come to?"

You looked at him and shrugged, "Yea, I don't mind coming over for a bit to your house."

He shook his head, still smirking, "I was talking about my bed."

Your eyes went wide before you burst out laughing and hitting his arm playfully; "Billie, don't say that when your friends are here," you shook your head, rolling your eyes, "You make things so awkward."

You turned your attention around to a leaving Tre. He was quiet through-out the visit, and he didn't look too happy when he got up just then and walked out.

You slowly turned back to Billie and Mike with a pained look on your face for causing pain for Tre. He really is an amazing guy... he shouldn't go through this pain over me.

Mike looked disgusted in his spot on the other side of Billies bed, "Yea, you really do, Billie. You're as bad as Tre."

Billie laughed, "Oh, come on. Tre is far worse when it comes to sex jokes than I am."

Obviously neither Billie or Mike noticed Tre had walked out. Of course, though, they didn't understand the hurt Tre was going through. Only you knew what Tre felt, and he was going to keep that that way.

You felt your hand given a squeeze which snapped you out of your daze and back into reality. You looked down at Billie who had a concerned look on his face as he stared at you; "Feeling okay?"

You weakly smiled to give him for reassurance and nodded, "I'm fine. I just can't wait to get out of here is all."

"So, Mr. Armstrong, if you don't mind, I need to have a few words with you regarding your treatment at home?" Doctor Sean said as he walked into the room.

You slowly turned your head to the friendly doctor and smiled at him softly.

You turned back to Billie, "If it's okay, I'm just going to grab a coffee."

He smiled, "See you in a bit then."

You got up and walked out of the room casually. Yes, the plan was to go get a coffee, but first you had to talk to Tre, because you noticed that through-out the week in the hospital, you still had not given one single word towards how he felt about you. Of course, you somewhat felt the same, but he had actually admitted his feelings to you out loud.

You walked down to the lunchroom area of the hospital. The room was big and had many different stations with different restaurant food chains. You quickly skimmed the room a few times until you finally spotted out Tre within the people crowding the place.

Tre was sitting alone at a square table near the entrance to the lunch room. He had a cup of coffee in his hand as he stared at random people and took sips from it every few seconds.

You walked over without him noticing and took the seat in front of him. You weakly smiled, "Hello."

He looked at you slowly with the same expression he showed as he watched all the other people walking around, "Hi."

"How's your arm?" you asked without taking a pause at all. You wanted conversation to move so there would be no awkward silence.

He looked over at his shoulder and shrugged, "Can't feel it with all the painkillers."

You let out a long breath through your nose as you stared at him, "Sorry I put you through all my shit," you said, regarding the whole scene at the arcade.

He shrugged, taking a sip from his coffee; "It was my plan to have the cops chase me. To be honest, I expected a lot more to happen. I didn't expect to even make it out alive after insulting a cop and putting them on a few hour chase."

Your heart was pained after he had spoken the words 'I didn't expect to even make it out alive...' You couldn't understand how someone would risk their own life for the lives of the girl he felt so strongly for and the friend she was dating.

You shook your head slowly, "Don't say that... don't say it was in your plan to die."

He took a final sip of his coffee and placed it to the side of the table, "I didn't say that."

"But that's what you were thinking when you looked me straight in the eyes and said," just the memory replaying in your mind made your words so hard to speak, "'Goodbye, Nikki.'"

He sat there in silence for a few seconds before getting ready to reply, "I thought it would have been best."

You looked up at him in awe, "For you to die?" you shot at him.

His eyes went wide for a second, "WHAT? No," he sighed, "I meant for me to never see you again."

Those words also broke your heart to hear.

You looked down at your lap and you could feel his eyes on you as you tried not to show too much pain in your expression.

"That's not what I meant," he spoke softly, noticing how he hurt you.

You looked up at him, "Yes it was, Tre." You paused, "I understand, though."

He sighed, leaning forward to get a good look into your eyes, "I wasn't going to kill myself or anything - that's just stupid - but I was... I went through a lot of..." he sunk back as he tried to find his words.

"I hurt you bad, didn't I?" you said, finishing what he was thinking in another view.

He looked down, "It wasn't your fault."

"Bullshit, Tre," you stared at him with tears starting to well-up, "You knew we were both kidding ourselves when we said we didn't feel anything for each other. So of course it's somewhat my fault for not confronting anything to you just because I was confused."

He stared at you for what seemed like minutes as you cleared your throat to say your last final thought.

"But I'm with Billie now, and as much as I love being with him, I am sorry for leading you on even when I liked him too. It was unfair and selfish of me," you looked down.

Tre shook his head and spoke softly, "I may have led you to him because I wanted you to be with me, but it's not selfish that you do or feel things for another person when you're with someone else."

You're telling me! If you only knew how many times I've sat beside Billie but had you on my mind... It makes me feel horrible, but I can't stop...

You bit your lip, trying to switch the conversation up a little but keep it to the same subject, "Tre, how do you feel about me?" you looked back up at him, meeting his eyes.

He stared back, "I already confessed how I feel about you, but I would like to know what you think about it or..." he paused, "how you feel about me?"

You felt cornered and you swore the sweat started pouring out of your skin, however it was just the heat of the topic.

You continued to stare at him, scared to confess too much; "Um... well... when you said all those..." you cleared your throat and sat up a bit straighter, "nice things to me, I was really shocked, and... well... it was really hard for me to hear - I can't really explain it, but it was hard for me to tell you I'm with Billie."

He nodded slowly, "It was hard to hear," he paused, "Hard to see also," he mumbled softly.

"Tre, I thought--"

"But how do you feel about me?" His eyes looking into yours made you feel so hot. Your heart was beating like crazy and you were afraid to say the wrong thing that would tare him up even more.

You took in a slow deep breath and looked deeply into his eyes, "Tre, I..."

love you with everything I have and want to be with you so much that my heart is ripping to pieces just by knowing that we're not together.

You couldn't tell him the truth - it would just complicate things more; "I don't feel anything towards you..." you looked down as you lied, scared to meet his eyes. As you continued to speak, your eyes shifted all around except at him - I could get an award for being the worst liar when it comes to my expressions. - "I don't want to ruin our friendship, though."

You looked back to his face and he had the same expression as before he asked you how you felt, "You're lying. I can tell because you can't look directly at me."

Why is it relieving that he knows I'm lying?

Your eyes went huge as you looked back at him because you could feel yourself getting even hotter; "No, Tre, I'm not lying!"

He laughed lightly, "You're a horrible liar."

"Tre!" you shot at him, hoping he'd lay off.

He stopped and looked at you seriously, taking both your hands that were lying on the table into his, "I'm not going to ever put pressure on you to choose who you really want, but believe me when I say the love I feel for you will not let you go that easily."

You stared directly in his eyes, not wanting him to let go of your hands but did at the same time in case Billie or Mike would randomly walk in and get the wrong - right - impression.

He eventually let go after moments that seemed as if he was going to lean right over and kiss you. Good thing he didn't though...

Yea, good thing, the other voice in your head thought sarcastically.

You cleared your throat and got back up, "I better go check if we can leave yet."

But before you could walk away from where you stood, Mike came running up to the both of you and stopped in front of you.

You looked at him wide-eyed, hoping he just arrived and wasn't actually standing there while Tre and you were talking.

"Hey, guys," he waved to Tre who he did not expect to be there.

He looked at you, "Nikki, Billie needs to go to your house, because I can't find the key to our house, so I have to look - and Tre can help - as Billie rests at your place," he looked from you to Tre repeatedly, hoping you both understood.

You didn't like the idea of having Billie in your house while Tre knew, because he was still hurting.

You shook your head at him and looked around the room, "I can't. My parents are home and my brother--"

Mike interrupted, "They're not even home yet from your brother's injury..."

"They will be, though!" you protested.

He took his car keys out of his pocket, "You could get an award for being a horrible liar."

Your eyes went wide and you couldn't help but look over at Tre who was grinning at what Mike said.

"You just don't want your parents finding out is all," Mike concluded, walking away and leaving you with Tre once again.

HOW COME I CAN'T LIE?!

You looked back over at Tre who was still grinning - even more so. He got up from his seat and said, "I'm not giving up just yet."